Town Square

Repairs planned for flood-prone Oregon Expressway underpass

Flooding that shut down the Oregon Expressway underpass at Alma Street twice in the past week due to heavy rainstorms is prompting county engineers to take a deeper look into repairing what has been a persistent problem this winter.

Posted by Knee-Deep-In-Water
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Dec 6, 2012 at 10:43 am

You'd think that there would be at least redundancy built into the control device for the pumps. And there isn't any reason that a remote monitoring/control capability shouldn't be provided for this system, too.

The flooding at this tunnel is infrequent, but the impact on traffic in Palo Alto is significant. Let's hope that the County does the job right, this time.

The City Council should invite the Country Engineers to address the Council when they finish their work, to explain what happened, and how they believe they have fixed the problem for the years to come.

Posted by resident
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Dec 6, 2012 at 12:31 pm

I live a couple of blocks from this underpass and drive through there all the time. The curved approaches, limited sight lines, narrow lanes, multiple hidden on and off ramps, and frequently wet pavement confuse a lot of drivers. I always slow down to 25mph (or less). I've seen enough car crashes to know better than to speed through there.

Since I have been here in Palo Alto since 1969 this damn underpass always floods. I cannot believe this happens so fast that no one in the entire city can manage it or get on the problem fast enough to prevent cars from getting stuck under there.

What incredible incompetence ... 40 years and still this is a problem.

Is there any issue on which the Palo Alto city management gets it right ? Ever ?

Can someone run some alarms or videos to the central police dispatch or something - and then monitor it and DO SOMETHING ? This never seems to happen to Embarcadero ... but then there is probably less water flowing into it.

Posted by anonymous
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Dec 6, 2012 at 5:56 pm

ok, ok, it IS a problem - a hassle and a safety issue. It should be fixed. That underpass has been there for something like 50 years?! Sometimes, irrespective of weather, traffic is really bad on Oregon and that is a major artery through the City of PA and it should function more smoothly in all regards.

If you would actually read the article, you would see that the Oregon underpass is under the jurisdiction of Santa Clara County, not the City of Palo Alto. But that would take all the fun out of bashing the City, wouldn't it?

Posted by Donald
a resident of South of Midtown
on Dec 6, 2012 at 6:28 pm

It floods because it is below the water table, and has been for 40 years. Fighting Mother Nature is a losing battle (ask the Army Corps of Engineers). This is a bad design, and the pumps and controls will never work 100% of the time that you need them. This is not incompetence, it is reality.

WilliamR ... I don't look at it as fun and at least I am trying to use a little humor.And I don't care if it is under the county, after 50 years someone somewhere needs to step up and make noise about a chronic problem. This is really ridiculous, someone in the city, or the county, or wherever needs to do something to catch this multiple ways so at the very least it gets blocked off in a flood when it starts to flood.

Posted by Wendy
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Dec 7, 2012 at 8:51 am

This flooding issue has been going on for 40 years or more. Why wait till now to try and resolve it? The problem could have been taken care of long ago at a smaller cost than it will cost now. Who was the bright person to finally decide that this issue needs to be taken care of??

Posted by 40daysand40nights
a resident of Community Center
on Dec 7, 2012 at 1:14 pm

This underpass was a nightmare back in the 1998 Super El NiÃ±o flood year. Many, many times that spring it was flooded and some dingbat would try to drive through it and then get stuck. Back then, the city said "never again", but it has flooded repeatedly in 2002, 2006, ,2008, and 2009.

What in the world has taken so long?? Didn't the city clue the county in twelve years ago? Just what repairs need to be done to fix this hazard permanently? Maybe this requires legal action

Posted by anonymous
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Dec 8, 2012 at 1:08 pm

WilliamR, I think it is pretty tough for PA citizens to "contact the county" and get action - we NEED the city of PA to contact their colleagues in county government. I would have no idea where to go to complain in all that county bureaucracy. I remember going down to that large county building once - an impressive bureacratic setup.
The fact that this major boulevard floods periodically should have been dealt with - I don't know about the specifics of the pumps, original design, and all, but I do know I pay a lot of taxes.

Posted by enough
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Dec 8, 2012 at 2:26 pm

If they closed Oregon Expressway then everyone would walk or bike. Problems solved. then we can become the leading bike city in the USA. After Oregon we can close Middlefield, San Antonio and Embarcadero--no more traffic problems in PA.

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